How to Choose Your Bathroom’s Palette. Options for All Preferences

by Laura Mitran · June 1, 2017

Like the bedroom, the bathroom is a very personal space where an important part of the daily routine goes on and where you need a nice ambiance. For some, this means a fresh all-white bathroom, for others a combination of neutrals or, on the contrary, of bright, cheerful colors. Here’s how to choose your bathroom’s palette, according to personal preferences and designers’ tips.

Look to the rest of your home

If you don’t have a color you would like in the bathroom in mind, draw inspiration from the rest of your home. Pick up on an accent color in your living space, for example, and make it the dominant color in your bathroom. If you decorate a the bathroom of the master bedroom, its color has to match the latter’s, but doesn’t have to be the same.

How to choose your bathroom’s palette. Pick up to 3 colors

The rule of three is a great guiding principle for creating a bathroom color scheme. Pick one neutral, one rich color, and one accent. To do it successfully, observe a 70/20/10 distribution: Use the lightest color for 70 percent of the room’s decor, the second for 20 percent, and the accent for 10 percent.

For example, white plus cocoa brown plus light green equals cool, clean, and classic. But white, cocoa brown, and Kelly green is energizing and uplifting.

Use any color at least 3 times

Any color you choose has to be found in your bathroom in at least three places, including furniture, towels and other accessories.

How to choose your bathroom’s palette. Combine neutrals

A combination of two neutrals is also very appropriate for the bathroom, creating a calm atmosphere. White and grey can be very interesting together, especially if you have a lot of texture in your bathroom, like veined marble. If you combine two colors, apply a 70/30 proportion.

Use a neutral for balance

If you choose bold colors such as hot pink or apple green, balance with a neutral. An easy way to do that is leaving the sink, toilet and tub white when you choose two bright colors for your bathroom. Or you can have the bold colors on your furniture, appliances and accessories and keep the walls neutral.

How to choose your bathroom’s palette. Go organic

You can’t go wrong with a naturally inspired hue, such as seafoam green and robin’s-egg blue. These types of colors are also great to help soften otherwise hard edges and geometric shapes in our bathing spaces.